The Pop Life

By Neil Strauss

Published: February 2, 1995

The Jackson Watch

Michael Jackson is the kind of musician who likes to keep everybody -- from his fans to his collaborators to his record label -- in the dark. His newest album, with the working title "HIStory," was supposed to be in stores in November, just in time for Christmas. Then it was pushed back to Valentine's Day, and yesterday a spokeswoman for his record label, Epic, said the recording was now rescheduled for some time in the spring.

"HIStory" -- for the moment, at least -- is planned as a two-CD set, with one disk of greatest hits and a second of new material. Mr. Jackson's last album, "Dangerous," was also originally supposed to be a greatest-hits package with a few new songs added, but ended up featuring only new material.

Mr. Jackson has been working in studios from New York to Chicago to Minneapolis to Los Angeles (where he's currently ensconced) with leading contemporary rhythm-and-blues producers and songwriters like Teddy Riley, Babyface, R. Kelly, David Foster and the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. But none of these hit makers seem to know for certain whether Mr. Jackson will be including their work on his album.

"Michael Jackson might be one of the only people I've worked with where I don't know whether a song is going to be used or not," said Babyface, who wrote a ballad for "HIStory." "When we're working, we never talk about whether the song's going to be on there or not."

Teddy Riley, who helped produce "Dangerous," said he had "worked on some stuff and basically we haven't gotten back together, so I don't know whether it will be on there."

With Jimmy Jam and Mr. Lewis, Mr. Jackson recorded a duet with his sister, Janet, as well as two other songs. Jimmy Jam said it was tough work trying to break every rule to come up with something special to satisfy Mr. Jackson.

Though Mr. Jackson's "Thriller" is the top-selling album in history, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide, industry insiders wonder whether the recent bad press surrounding Mr. Jackson will hamper sales of the new album. But Bob Jones, the vice president of Michael Jackson Productions, said he believed Mr. Jackson's fans still supported him. "Fans around the world have been driving me crazy asking when the album's going to be released," he said. New Ticket Options

Last year, Pearl Jam filed a memo with the Justice Department accusing Ticketmaster of exercising a monopoly over concert-ticket distribution. This summer, what could prove to be the first powerful rival to Ticketmaster is to get off the ground. The newest addition to the nationwide group of amphitheaters owned by Sony Music, Blockbuster and Pace Entertainment recently revealed its plans to sell tickets at remote locations independently.

Tom Rooney, the executive director of the 25,000-seat Blockbuster-Sony Music Entertainment Center, which is scheduled to open on Memorial Day weekend in Camden, N.J., said that "a computerized ticketing network is being set up at most if not all of the 76 Blockbuster video stores in the area," which includes parts of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. In addition, tickets to the amphitheater are to be sold by phone through Telecharge, a New York City-based ticketing service generally used for Broadway shows.

Though Mr. Rooney said that Blockbuster and Sony Music had no plans at present to expand the ticketing service to include other venues, the concert industry will be closely watching the outcome of the experiment to see whether competition with the much-criticized Ticketmaster is possible.

One of Pearl Jam's chief complaints about Ticketmaster was its high service charges. Mr. Rooney said that Blockbuster-Sony Music's surcharge would be a fee relative to a ticket price, which can be flexible for bands concerned with service charges.

"Sony has every right to enter the ticketing business," said Larry Solters, a spokesman for Ticketmaster, "and we're happy to compete with them. But the Japanese conglomerate and its biggest recording act, Pearl Jam, should stop using a false attack on Ticketmaster as a way to facilitate their business scheme. In their expansionary zeal, they seem to have forgotten all about the fans."

Both Mr. Rooney and a spokeswoman for Sony said that Pearl Jam's battle with Ticketmaster had no connection whatsoever with the new ticketing enterprise. New Springsteen

Last week, Bruce Springsteen completed his first album since 1992, "Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits," to be released by Columbia on Feb. 28. The album features 14 of Mr. Springsteen's best-known songs (from "Born to Run" in 1975 to the recent "Streets of Philadelphia," from the soundtrack to the film "Philadelphia"). It also includes four new songs that he recently recorded with the E Street Band. These are the first recordings Mr. Springsteen has made with the full band, which now includes Nils Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt, since 1984. Remembering Bob Marley

The 50th anniversary of the birth of Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981, will be celebrated around the world on Monday. In Kingston, Jamaica, the Bob Marley Museum is holding a tribute concert that is to feature Marley songs performed by reggae greats like the Wailers, I-Three (with Marley's wife, Rita), Third World, Toots and the Maytals and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Highlights will be taped for a special on the cable channel VH1.

Meanwhile, in New York at Irving Plaza, Roger Steffens, an archivist, is to show a video tribute to Marley that will be followed by performances by Sugar Minott, the Mighty Diamonds, Sister Carol, Worl-A-Girl and the City Heat Band.

To commemorate Marley's legacy, the Jamaican treasury will put his likeness on what is believed to be the first circulating coin with a musician's picture on it, and in May, Island records is to release "Legend II," a sequel to Marley's top-selling greatest-hits compilation, "Legend."